Ad4dcss/Digital Citizenship

When it comes to job hunting, people have no shortage of concerns: preparing a compelling resume, providing polished answers to interview questions, and having excellent references, just to name a few. But since the word "Google" became a verb, job seekers have one more thing to worry about: ensuring their online records won't deter hiring managers from making a job offer. Many employers are incorporating an informal online search of applicants into their review process. Whether or not negative information about you exists on the web, it's a good idea to ensure there are plenty of positive associations. This article from the folks at Adobe makes four recommendations for how to manage your digital footprint.

Online Safety Assignment (wiki) for Milton Area School District (Pennsylvania) students

Proper Internet etiquette from next year will take up a bigger part of ethics textbooks in elementary schools. Students in Korea begin to learn Internet ethics from the fourth grade, but second and third graders will get instruction on the topic next year.

Five ideas to enable educators to develop and model a purposeful and professional digital footprint.\n\n1-Model responsible footprinting with your own practices in blogging, commenting, social networking, and picture posting.\n2-If you have established a professional blog, share it widely and proudly such as placing it in your email signature (if your employer will let you) and as Jeff Utecht suggests include your blog url when you comment on others blogs and in other forums. This enables others to see best practices and is a great way to get the conversation started.\n3-Google yourself (aka ego surfing). If you have something posted online that you'd be uncomfortable having a current or future student, parent, colleague, or employer find, delete it (if you can) or request that it be deleted. There are ways an aggressive internet detective can still find this information, but most won't go through the trouble and the mere fact that you deleted it shows some level of responsibility.\n4-If you do have online personal information and/or interests you wouldn't want discovered, use an unidentifiable screen name/avatar. This means you may need to update your screen name/avatar in your existing online presence.\n5-Engage in the conversation and professionally comment, reply, and present online, onsite, and at conferences.

From British Columbia. This collection of short videos, hosted by computer guru Steve Dotto, demonstrates how kids use the Internet and explains the responsibilities of being an effective parent in the Digital Age.

For too long librarians have been seen as "copyright cops," impeding the use of copyrighted materials by students and staff. This presentation suggests we redefine our roles, helping those we serve take maximum advantage of fair use provisions, finding authorities with a "user-centric" view of copyright enforcement, and teaching others to consider not just the legal, but moral side of intellectual property acquisition, use and re-use.

The image was blurred and the voice distorted, but the words spoken by a young Ohio woman are haunting. She had sent nude pictures of herself to a boyfriend. When they broke up, he sent them to other high school girls. The girls were harassing her, calling her a slut and a whore. She was miserable and depressed, afraid even to go to school.

A griefer is a player who plays a computer game in order to irritate and harass other players, rather than in pursuit of game objectives.

From Patti Afgatson, Olweus Bullying Prevention expert and author of Bullying in the Digital World

Whether we like it or not, Google or Wikipedia are our student's first ports of call when it comes to researching or undertaking independent study, not the school library. Diigo offers a fantastic way to tap into the way our students operate by allowing the annotation of web pages which can then be shared with your students and, by doing so, you facilitate the process of research for your students and you set them on the right track for further independent study.

Brilliant lyrics and video on Copyright and "Transformative Use" by Michael Robb Grieco, doctoral student at Temple University.

New documentaries from the PBC producers of growing up online. Some digiteen teachers are using these resources.

This is a positive step forward if the focus is going to be on how digital technologies can transform teaching and learning, and if students are encouraged to think critically about the media-ecosystem they inhabit.

Students are using personal technology tools more readily to study subject matter, collaborate with classmates, and complete assigments than they were several years ago, but they are generally asked to "power down" at school and abandon the electronic resources they rely on for learning outside of class, according to findings from a national survey released last week.

Surgeons 'Tweet' From Operating Room During Brain Surgery

Watch this video to learn how to talk to your children about the dangers of posting personal information online and the effect of cyberbullying on others.

From the Media Education Lab. Sing along to understand copyright and learn about your rights to fair use.

Learn about copyright and fair use with this engaging music video from the Media Education Lab. Transformative use is one of the keys to fair use. This video supports the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education available at www.mediaeducationlab.com

The activities and assignments in the elementary-level curriculum introduce children to some basic ideas in media literacy, such as attention-getting techniques, interpretations by different audiences, and the values that make certain stories newsworthy.

Do you suffer from Copyright Confusion? This is another great video from the Center for Social Media that describes the new Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy. This is a great video to show at an educator workshop as a segue into the new thinking on Copyright Law and Fair Use. The Fair Use document was developed and funded by a MacArthur Foundation grant after a research study revealed that rigid interpretations of copyright law are actually strangling educational practice rather than enabling it.